Injured bald eagle released into Montana wild

Jan. 25, 2013
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Kelly Anderson, left, and Beverly Skinner, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, release a female bald eagle Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 near Hobson, Mont. Anderson found the injured eagle two weeks ago. The eagle was taken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Raptor Center in Bozeman where it was rehabilitated. / Larry Beckner, Great Falls Tribune

by By David Murray, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

by By David Murray, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

HOBSON, Mont. -- The eagle hesitated only briefly, then leapt from the kennel and seized her freedom. It was exactly what everyone was hoping for.

"There she goes, there she goes," Jackie Wichman cheered, clapping her hands as the bird momentarily dipped toward the ground, then soared away into a blue Montana sky.

"Oh - look at her. She's home."

Two weeks to the day after the injured bald eagle was found hobbled on the ground in a snowstorm, a small group of privileged spectators witnessed her return to the wild. Among them were Wichman, administrative assistant for the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge; Beverly Skinner, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Kelly Anderson, the Hobson-area woman who helped save the eagle and who returned Thursday to watch her set free.

"This is so great," Anderson said as the eagle disappeared toward the horizon. "It's just wonderful to see her take off. She looked good."

A little while ago, hope for the full-grown female eagle's prospects were not so good. While driving home Jan. 10, Anderson's boyfriend, Elling Warner, spotted the eagle in a harvested hay field northeast of Hobson. The big bird's left wing appeared to be folded back behind its shoulder, and it scrambled over the broken ground.

Warner called his girlfriend, Anderson, and the two kept track of the disabled bird as biologists made their way to the hay field. As a worsening blizzard punished the rescue crew, Skinner and Wichman chased down the eagle and placed it in a sack.

Back at the refuge headquarters in Lewistown, Wichman took photographs of the eagle's injured wing and emailed them to Becky Kean, director of the Montana Raptor Conservation Center in Bozeman.

"This does not look good," Kean told Wichman.

It was feared that the bird's wing had been broken, meaning the eagle could probably not be saved. But when Kean had the opportunity to examine the bird personally, she found the prognosis to be far more optimistic.

"She kind of felt around the bird's shoulder to look for broken bones and she kept saying, 'Nothing's broken. I don't know what's wrong.'" Skinner recalled. "Then all of a sudden she kind of lifted the wing and - 'schwoosh' - it went right out."

Remarkably, the eagle was relatively uninjured. Somehow, the primary feathers in her left wing had become ensnared behind her back, similar to what would happen if a human was scratching her shoulder blade and had a fingernail get snagged on her sweater. The eagle's wing muscles were a little strained, but beyond that she was a fine, fit and healthy bird.

"She's very, very healthy," Skinner said. "She's been eating since after the night we brought her back. That next day we gave her some meat, and she just grabbed it. She couldn't have been on the ground very long."

Skinner said the eagle could have possibly freed herself from her stuck wing predicament, or she could have just as easily starved or frozen to death.

"She could not have been on the ground very long," she concluded. "She just did something to catch her wing and was probably on the ground that afternoon."

The fully mature bird is likely between 5 and 8 years old and weighs about 10 pounds - a good size for a bald eagle.

"The raptor center said she has been very feisty," Skinner said. "They were kind of glad to get rid of her."

So, after a little recovery time to make sure she was ready for flight, the Raptor Conservation Center returned the eagle to be released in the same field where she was found.

"We're going to tip up the kennel, because she's going to want to fly up in the air," Skinner said in the moments leading up to the eagle's release. "We're going to try and point her into the wind, like a plane, so she can get a little bit of lift. If it ends up where she hits the ground and runs, she's going to be able to take off that way also."

"I think she's going to bust out flying," Skinner said with confidence.

With little ceremony, Skinner and Anderson lifted the pet carrier holding the eagle onto the hood of the Fish and Wildlife Service truck. Bracing themselves for just a moment, the two women stepped to the side of the carrier's hinged door, giving wide berth to the bird's route of escape. Anderson unlatched the door, swung it open, and waited.

It didn't take long. The eagle poked one wing out into space, then leapt into the air. In a moment she was gone.